India trade mission needs clearly defined targets for results: Fox

“The
province's last trade mission to India announced that an Indian IT company,
mPhasiS, would create 300 jobs on the Island. Four years later another trade
mission nears and we are still waiting for those jobs to materialize. Hopefully
this trade mission will have a greater emphasis on results in the form of actual
jobs for Islanders rather than an emphasis on photo ops,"said Fox.

Of
interest to Fox was that there is no representation on the trade mission from
Island companies in the aerospace, bioscience, food and tourism sectors. Fox
also noted that the Ontario government has been planning this trade mission for
months yet has contained no mention of Prince Edward Island's participation in
its public statements on the trade mission, suggesting a junior partner role at
best rather than a joint mission. The Ontario mission begins on January 27 and
runs through until February 6.

“Trade
missions are expensive so it's great that we are hitching a ride with the
Ontario government on their trip to hopefully trim costs. I would have liked to
have seen a broader representation of Island businesses from the aerospace,
bioscience, food and tourism sectors that could realize the full benefit of the
trade mission. Which is all the more reason why we should have some clearly
defined benchmarks for success,"said Fox.